682 colonoscopy patients were split into two groups, with one undergoing a longer procedure but with a period of less discomfort added on at the end.

After, patients were asked to recall the total pain felt. The peak-end group reported 10% less pain and a 10% increase in attending a follow-up procedure.

How do you want to be remembered in customers’ eyes?‍

How do you want to leave them feeling? What little touches can you add to your product or service to leave customers feeling amazing and want to share with their network?

Create a Customer Journey Map

Identify positive experiential opportunities to exploit and painful weaknesses to remedy.

Some pains may be small or cheap to fix, yet play a big part in a person’s memory.

Negative experiences are a hidden opportunity...

...to re-establish a positive peak and / or end. Things will go wrong, whoever’s at fault, so allow flexibility and an authentic humanity to surface, not just to save the relationship but to allow the brand to shine.

Handle a problem well enough and that’s what customers will remember, not the problem itself.

52 people were split into two groups and given IKEA boxes: either fully-assembled or unassembled that  they were asked to put together.

Those tasked with assembling their box were willing to pay a 63% premium for it during the subsequent bidding process over those given the pre-assembled boxes.

Provide personalization options early in your order flow to engender a sense of ownership and significantly improve conversion. Apple do this with their customizations for a new computer, as do new car showrooms. How can you add a low-risk, satisfying sense of creation into your existing products or services, especially around your USPs?

Don’t create choice overload and stress with too many pre-purchase customizations. Similarly, keep any post-purchase building effort simple, fun and low risk.  What core parts of your product manufacture should always remain out of customer hands?

Frame involvement as a value-add experience and not a labour-cost-saving exercise. How much this is felt may depend on your brand, your product and what you allow to be crafted by customers. 

274 people were shown 10 t-shirts, split into 4 groups and then asked to rate the shirts on either likeability, casualness, colorfulness or how much it matched with a cap. They were then asked how fun the task was.

Those given the ability to express their like or dislike rated the task as much more fun than the other groups. Simply, we value ways to express how we feel.

Personalization pays.

Bold, scaleable self-expressive features increase loyalty and sales.

Coca-Cola’s #ShareaCoke campaign - switching out the product name for a person’s name - led to a 10% rise in 2014 sales and a 7% spike in Facebook growth.

An Australian store sold 400,000 customized jars of Nutella for $10 each, becoming their top seller.

Tie it back to emotions.

Though there are successes like Kraft Heinz personalized soup “Get Well Soon ___”, with consumers happy to spend five times more, know that personalization has upper bounds on price and has less impact as it becomes more common.

Like Heinz, the smartest brands will tie personalization to underlying product emotions - care and sympathy in this case.

What emotions do you want end consumers to feel? Use personalization to help express these publicly.  

We call Reciprocity the glue that binds us as a society.

No surprise then that it’s a powerful tool to help people make decisions that are both pro-social and a win-win.

When the Behavioural Insights Team were asked by the UK Government to increase the rates of job-seekers turning up to interviews, they applied the principle of Reciprocity to boost rates.

They changed the text message being sent out from:



“You’ve been booked an interview at Tesco on Friday at 10am”

to:

“Dave,
‍

I’ve booked you an interview at Tesco on Friday at 10am. 


Good luck. 


Roxy”

This shift from a passive tone of voice to an active tone, where Roxy had done something kind for you (and you then wanted to reciprocate by turning up), increased attendance from 10% up to a whopping 27%.

We call Reciprocity the glue that binds us as a society.

No surprise then that it’s a powerful tool to help people make decisions that are both pro-social and a win-win.

When the Behavioural Insights Team were asked by the UK Government to increase the rates of job-seekers turning up to interviews, they applied the principle of Reciprocity to boost rates.

They changed the text message being sent out from:



“You’ve been booked an interview at Tesco on Friday at 10am”

to:

“Dave,
‍

I’ve booked you an interview at Tesco on Friday at 10am. 


Good luck. 


Roxy”

This shift from a passive tone of voice to an active tone, where Roxy had done something kind for you (and you then wanted to reciprocate by turning up), increased attendance from 10% up to a whopping 27%.

407 pedestrians in Brittany, France were approached by a young woman and asked to complete a survey. Before the request, half were offered candy and the other half were not.

The results found that people - especially women - were far more likely to reciprocate and answer the survey after receiving a gift than when not.

Act first.‍

Find ways to initiate reciprocity with consumers.  Merely asking those satisfied to go tell their friends will work (Söderlund et al., 2015).

Make it a ‘common habit’.

When we’re told that a behavior is a social norm shared by others, we’re more likely to reciprocate. Households in USA and India consume significantly less electricity when told that their neighbors are consuming less (Sudarshan, 2014). In the long-term, any consistent, successful behaviors will be adopted as the default for others.

Do it in person.

Reciprocation appears to be more powerful when requests from strangers are made face to face rather than online. This is due to the persuasive impact of immediacy that physicality affords, the higher levels of digital suspicion and the sheer number of emails people receive (Meier, 2016).

310 US Amazon Prime customers were split into 2 groups, either on a free trial or on a paid membership. They were then queried about attitudes towards and value perceptions of Prime and its benefits.

Those on the paid subscription reported greater loyalty, perceived value and exhibited a higher monthly spend than those who were on the free trial.

This is driven by two core effects:

1) Sunk Cost Bias where we seek to justify past, non-recoverable costs (of membership access) with our current actions (more spending), even when it’s not in our best interests. 

2) A desire to remain consistent with our past commitments - “I’m a Prime customer now.” 

Create a members club. Putting a price on entry heightens our analysis of the benefits of joining in a way that we wouldn’t if it were free. Limiting access to certain products or benefits can signal higher perceived quality (Zeithaml, 1998) and an increased willingness to buy.

Amazon entice with convenience (‘free’ one-day shipping), priority (30-min Early Access Lightning Deals) and exclusive choice (a vast music, video and book library). What benefits would your own customers pay for? What feelings can gaining access promote?

There’s a reason this Nugget is #1 in our library.

The concept of Scarcity lies at the core of economics, and greatly influences perceptions of value, status and our competitive desire to attain certain items over others.

Unfortunately, it's also one of the more poorly-applied concepts out there, along with Defaults and Loss Aversion.

‍

Mastering quantity scarcity‍

An airline stating that there's 
“Only 3 seats left” may well be using accurate data and not simply using faux-scarcity to artificially suggest that there's less supply of seats than there actually is.

However, from the user's perspective, the buildup of mistrust around the use of scarcity means cynicism is higher, so one must be careful with information presented.

Similarly, hotel websites telling you that “30 other people are looking at this item” engineer stress to compel people into action without changing supply yet highlighting demand in a manipulative way.

Instead, use quantity scarcity to focus on the craft and high quality of what you're selling.

Make your scarcity feel valuable, not stressful.

‍

Mastering time scarcity

Ensure that any time restriction is highlighted primarily for the purpose of maintaining the quality of your product or service, and not merely to cause stress that could be avoided.

As an example, use time scarcity to launch unique or experimental products that are only available within a particular window (say a week, month or season).

This use of time scarcity is positive and encourages brand exploration, used creatively to highlight your unique value.

There’s a reason this Nugget is #1 in our library.

The concept of Scarcity lies at the core of economics, and greatly influences perceptions of value, status and our competitive desire to attain certain items over others.

Unfortunately, it's also one of the more poorly-applied concepts out there, along with Defaults and Loss Aversion.

‍

Mastering quantity scarcity‍

An airline stating that there's 
“Only 3 seats left” may well be using accurate data and not simply using faux-scarcity to artificially suggest that there's less supply of seats than there actually is.

However, from the user's perspective, the buildup of mistrust around the use of scarcity means cynicism is higher, so one must be careful with information presented.

Similarly, hotel websites telling you that “30 other people are looking at this item” engineer stress to compel people into action without changing supply yet highlighting demand in a manipulative way.

Instead, use quantity scarcity to focus on the craft and high quality of what you're selling.

Make your scarcity feel valuable, not stressful.

‍

Mastering time scarcity

Ensure that any time restriction is highlighted primarily for the purpose of maintaining the quality of your product or service, and not merely to cause stress that could be avoided.

As an example, use time scarcity to launch unique or experimental products that are only available within a particular window (say a week, month or season).

This use of time scarcity is positive and encourages brand exploration, used creatively to highlight your unique value.

146 people were asked to rate identical cookies that were either presented in a jar as scarce or in abundance. They were then asked how likely they would be to want to eat a further cookie.

When scarce, the cookies were rated as more desirable and having a higher value. They were also seen as more valuable when going from an abundant state to scarce than when always scarce.

Scarcity comes in 4 flavors:
Quantity, Time, Access & Rarity.

Control quantity.
‍To increase perceived value of your product, release it in smaller and diminishing quantities, emphasizing its finite nature.

Restrict time.
When the clock is ticking and we’re overwhelmed, we take mental shortcuts that speed up decision-making.

Motivate customers by emphasizing the limited time remaining in which to act.

Limit access.
Restricting access to your products or services will increase desire and perceived value. Do this selectively for certain features and / or customer segments.

For instance, you might want to design valuable, unique rewards that are only unlocked for very special efforts on the part of the customer.

‍

88 household individuals were split into three groups and  asked to either wear a badge supporting a  charity, asked to wear one along with another family member or not to wear at all. That same evening, all groups were then asked for a financial donation to the charity.

Those who were first asked the small request were far more likely to go on and donate money than those who weren’t.

Start with a question promoting reflection on one’s values. Their answers will create a desire to be consistent with their beliefs.

Have people perform a small related action. e.g. People who put a small “Drive carefully” sign in their window are more likely to follow the instruction than those who merely say they will. Frame it as a social norm.

Prime the ‘helpful’, ‘cooperative’ ‘supporter’ with positive feedback prior to a future request. 

Make the target request a continuation of the initial one. The more similar the activity, the greater success. Also balance your request sizes. If the initial request is too big, people won’t do it, never getting to the target request. But too-small tasks will widen the gulf between the two.

105 people were shown an online promotional offer, with the final offer value of 40% revealed either immediately or only at checkout.

Those in the extended curiosity condition were more likely to buy with the promotion than those who were told of the offer value immediately.

…curiosity will always be effective.

A recent campaign by Cancer Research UK to fill missing letters of the second-most common cause of cancer led to a 22% increase in its awareness. 

How can you use curiosity to drive a desire to learn about a new product or important message?

Create positive curiosity.

Vacation company srprs.me let you choose the number of people, dates and continent. You then get a scratch card to reveal your destination…but only at the airport!

‍

Use to convert free to paid.

‍Popular dating app Bumble uses curiosity to drive conversions. People who’ve already liked you are shown, but with their faces pixelated and no further information shown. Users are then prompted to buy BumbleBoost to close the information void.

32 dog-phobic children were split into 3 groups and shown 8 videos of either one child playing with a dog,  many children with different dogs or no dogs, and then asked to interact with a dog themselves.

Those who watched another child play with a dog performed far better. Those who watched many children also kept this up a month later.

Provide mental shortcuts through the judgements of others; the more people, the more persuasive.  First-time consumers of your product will benefit the most from this approach. 

Persuade with similarity. We're most influenced by those who we deem similar to ourselves. Communicate characteristics relevant to that segment, such as proximity, gender / age, profession or social class to successfully direct behavior. 

Use role-models. Understand the emotional drivers of your audience and seek out positive, aspirational individuals to direct specific consumer decisions and reinforce behaviors.

20 people were split into two groups. Half were asked to read the story of an unknown cosmetics brand & product and shown a photo of the store. Half were not given a story or photo. All were then asked for an estimation of the product’s cost range.

Those in the Story Group saw the item as of higher value and were twice as willing to pay for it.

Use the Fairy Tale Framework. Ensure that your brand story has a beginning, middle and end. Add in a conflict and define one easy-to-summarize message (Fog et. al, 2005). This should be told by identifiable characters who resolve the conflict, restore harmony and allow the brand to be valued positively. Add unexpected twists and finish on an emotional high, often the part most remembered (Guber, 2007).

Create positive persuasion, catching consumer interest and convincing through ‘narrative transportation’, where, once immersed in a story, the viewer’s mind alters (Escalas, 2004a). Stories trigger warmer, more upbeat feelings than regular ads, raise brand uniqueness, allow for product features to be conveyed without feeling commercial and are remembered by consumers in multiple ways: factually, visually and emotionally (Rosen, 2000).